In order to improve the speed of the USB interface and reduce the data transfer time of removable storage devices, in the past two years, many motherboards have begun to provide USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface, which has a nominal bandwidth of 20Gbps and an effective data transfer bandwidth of up to 2425MB/s, which is much higher than the common USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, and the effective data transmission bandwidth of the latter is only 1212MB/s. Obviously, the emergence of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface means that as long as the mobility of removable storage devices can be strong, its maximum transmission speed can also be increased to more than 2000MB/s, reaching the level of mainstream PCIe 3.0 SSD, thereby improving the user experience. To this end, many storage manufacturers have launched USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 removable storage devices, such as this XS2000 mobile SSD from Kingston, so what kind of experience can it bring to users?
Parameter specifications
Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
Master control: HuiRong SM2320 four-channel master control
Flash: 3D NAND TLC flash memory
Available capacity: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Size: 69.54mm
×32.58mm×13.5mm
Working temperature: 0 °C ~ 40 °C
Storage temperature: -20 °C ~ 85 °C
Warranty: 5-year limited warranty
Reference price: 1099 yuan (1TB)
High nominal speed, waterproof and dustproof
Compared with other mobile hard disks, kingston XS2000 mobile solid-state drive to our first impression is small, very small, its length is less than 7cm, width less than 4cm, using a 6.78-inch screen in front of the Honor 60 Pro mobile phone is a "small point", its weight is only 28.9 grams, easy to carry. However, although it is small, its technical specifications and protection level are very high.
First of all, the entire series of Kingston XS2000 mobile solid-state drives use USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface, and the nominal sequential read and write speed has reached 2000MB/s, which is the top level in removable storage products. It should be known that many mobile SSDs only use USB 3.2 Gen 2 interfaces, so the nominal sequential read and write speed of most products is only more than 1000MB/s.
What is black technology that allows kingston XS2000 mobile SSDs to have both higher transfer speeds and a small form factor? In addition to the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface, more critically, it uses the SM2320 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 single-chip controller launched by NAND flash memory master Huirong Technology in September last year. SM2320 can be seen as the first for mobile SSD optimization design of the main control chip, we know that although the mobile SSD is connected to the computer through the USB interface, their main body is mostly traditional SATA or NVMe SSD, just to connect with the USB interface, and add a USB to PCIe/NVMe/SATA bridge chip, so that the internal traditional SSD can transmit data through the USB interface.
The SM2320 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 single-chip controller makes it easier to move the design inside the SSD.
This creates a problem where additional bridging chips can occupy the PCB of the SSD, leaving the size of the mobile SSD inoperable. Therefore, in order to make the mobile SSD smaller and lower power consumption, Huirong Technology has specially launched an SM2320 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 single-chip controller that combines the bridge chip and the SSD main control chip into one and integrates it in one chip.
The SM2320 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 single-chip controller has a small PCB footprint and is even narrower than a 25-cent coin.
The CHIP's PCB footprint is only 26mm × 60mm in size, and as you can see from the schematic, its width is even narrower than a 25-cent coin, which also lays the foundation for the design of miniaturized mobile SSDs. More importantly, this chip integrates a bridging chip, so that manufacturers do not need to purchase additional third-party bridging chips, reducing the production cost of SSDs and product power consumption. The SM2320's internal four-channel read and write design supports Huirong Technology's unique NANDXtend ECC error correction technology, end-to-end data path protection, as well as 256-bit AES encryption technology, Opal specification and fingerprint security support for a high level of data security. At the same time, the SM2320 controller can be paired with the next generation of 3D NAND TLC and QLC NAND to manage up to 4TB of storage capacity. The Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD tested this time uses high-quality TLC particles.
▲ Compared with the Honor 60 Pro mobile phone, the Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD is a "small point".
In other respects, the Appearance of the Kingston XS2000 Mobile SSD is also quite distinctive, and the fuselage is made of metal and plastic materials, full of texture. At the same time, the product also comes with a rubber protective sleeve, the user can put the protective sleeve on the fuselage to better protect the sides and corners of the fuselage, in case it is broken and damaged the paint or the internal SSD.
▲ Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD with rubber protective case.
More importantly, the addition of this protective case can also make the protection level of the SSD reach IP55. Among them, the first 5 fingers protect against dust, although the product can not completely prevent the dust from entering, but the dust will not affect the normal operation of the equipment after entering; the second 5 fingers of protective water spray, from any direction to the product shell spray water will not cause product damage. Therefore, users can use it more confidently in their daily use, such as adding a protective case to this mobile SSD.
Finally, Kingston also included a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C to Type-C cable for the XS2000 mobile SSD. A slight disadvantage is that there is no Type-A adapter, after all, users may also use the device to connect to the more common Type-A interface in many cases.
The Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD provides a rubber case and a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C to Type-C data cable.
The current Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD consists of 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and offers a 5-year limited warranty or a warranty policy for the remaining life of the SSD (whichever comes first). This is also the first time we have seen the warranty method of adding the "SSD Remaining Life" standard to the warranty policy, the product does not list specific TBW values in the specification table, but users can use the Kingston SSD Manager SSD Tool software to view the "SSD Remaining Life".
In general, the value of "SSD LIFE LEFT" is "100" on new products or short-lived products, and "1" for products with exhausted life. Therefore, after purchasing the XS2000 mobile SSD, it is best for users to install Kingston SSD Manager to view the remaining life of the SSD, in addition to the software can also monitor the operating temperature of the SSD and provide the function of online firmware upgrade.
▲ Through kingston SSD Manager software, users can view the "remaining life of the SSD".
Next, we specially matched the titanium sculpture Z590 AORUS TACHYON motherboard, Core i9-11900K processor and other accessories to provide USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface to conduct a simple test and experience of kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB.
Test platform
Motherboard: Titanium Sculpture Z590 AORUS TACHYON
Processor: Core i9-11900K
Memory: Chicky DDR4 3600 8GB×2
Hard Drives: Kingston FURY Rebel PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1TB, Kingston XS2000 Mobile SSD 1TB
Graphics: GeForce RTX 3090
Power supply: AORUS Golden Eagle 850 (AP850GM)
The read speed can exceed 2000MB/s
CrystalDiskMark benchmark
▲CrystalDiskMark default setting test
▲CrystalDiskMark 64GB capacity setup test
Test review: First of all, we used CrystalDiskMark to test the benchmark performance of kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB, from the test results, the maximum sequential read speed of this SSD can indeed reach more than 2000MB/s, the score is 2031.88MB/s, and the sequential write speed is still a distance from the nominal specification of 2000MB/s, with a score of 1814.39MB/s. Of course, this sequential writing performance is still more prominent in today's removable storage products, such as mainstream mobile SSDs such as The Ylendia X8, although the built-in NVMe SSD, but because only the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface is used, its maximum nominal speed is only 1050MB/s. In other aspects, kingston XS2000 mobile SSD's high queue depth, multi-threaded random 4K performance also has a good performance, slightly deficient is its random 4KQ1T1 read performance is average.
It is worth mentioning that when we tested with a maximum capacity of 64GB in CrystalDiskMark, the Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB did not have a sharp drop, its sequential write speed still reached 1817.29MB/s, only in the random 4K test, its write performance showed a slight decline, which indicates that the product also uses a larger capacity SLC Cache.
Excellent file transfer performance
The actual application performance is better
▲ Kingston XS2000 Mobile SSD 1TB PCMark 8 Storage Performance Test Details.
Test Review: Next we also conducted the most important actual file transfer test for removable storage devices, for which we also specially matched the Kingston FURY rebel PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD 1TB with sequential read and write speeds of more than 7000MB/s. Judging from the tests, the results are satisfactory, when kingston FURY rebel PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD 1TB writes 215GB ISO files to Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB, the product does not appear to drop, the average write speed reaches 1566MB/s, and it only takes 147s to complete the task. For most ordinary users with a write capacity of less than 200GB, such a write speed can obviously meet the needs, after all, the common flash disk transfer speed is also within 200MB/s, and the transfer speed of mobile solid-state drives is generally within 1000MB/s.
If the Data Is Transferred to a high-performance storage device such as kingston FURY Rebel PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD by Kingston XS2000 Mobile SSD 1TB, its sequential read performance can be fully utilized, and its average write speed can reach 2031MB/s, which meets the nominal specifications. In the transfer of 3243 files, a total of 19.1GB of "League of Legends" game installation files, reflecting the SSD read and write small files random read and write ability, Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB also has a better performance, its average read and write speed is about 800MB/s, only 25 seconds to complete the task.
In addition, we tested the program application performance of the Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB. The results show that if the internal storage space of the computer is not enough, then you can also consider installing the program on this mobile SSD, its PCMark 8 storage performance score of more than 5000 points, although it is larger than those PCIe 4.0 SSDs with scores above 5100 points, but it is still better than ordinary SATA SSDs, which generally have a score of more than 5000 points.
The reason is that kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB can complete the read and write tasks of Photoshop, After Effects, inDesign and other software faster. For example, in the Adobe Photoshop overload test of read and write 6108MB, the time spent on the Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB was only 351.7s, while the time spent on the SATA SSD was about 361s. At the same time, this SSD can also provide faster game loading speed, and its "Final Fantasy 14: The End of the Dawning Moon" scene loading time is 10.763s, which is only about 2s more time than PCIe 4.0 SSD.
Low case temperature
The internal temperature is on the high side
We also tested the heat of the product, in the past we have found that some mobile storage devices in the continuous writing of large-capacity files, the surface of the fuselage is prone to hot, difficult to touch with the hand, you must stand the storage device, let it "cool" to take away. On the Kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB, we found that even after writing a 215GB ISO large-capacity file, the surface temperature of this product is not high, the maximum temperature of the fuselage is only about 39.7 ° C, and the surface of the fuselage is only warm to the touch, and the user can take it away immediately after the data transmission is completed. From the Detection of CrystalDiskInfo software, the heat generation of the SSD inside it is about 74 ° C.
▲ Detected by the thermal imager, the Temperature of the Fuselage Surface is not high after the Kingston XS2000 Mobile SSD 1TB has completed the 215GB data write.
▲ Through kingston SSD Manager software, users can also monitor the operating temperature of the SSD and upgrade the firmware online.
▲From the Detection of CrystalDiskInfo software, after completing the 215GB data write, the operating temperature of its internal SSD is 74 °C.
Small, high-performance removable storage device
Through the above tests, we believe that whether from the appearance, shape or performance, kingston XS2000 mobile SSD 1TB performance is still relatively satisfactory, for those who often need to carry a lot of data with them, this is a "small warehouse" that can store large capacity data, high-speed transmission of data, and it also provides a 5-year limited warranty or SSD remaining life warranty policy, so that users can rest assured. The only deficiency is that its price is expensive, such as 1TB 1099 yuan of price and the same capacity of the product is still a little high, such as the manufacturer can reduce its price in the future, then this SSD will be more cost-effective, more attractive to the user's attention.